Seedless fruit is developed to possess no mature seeds. Since seedless fruits are a lot more convenient, they will often be considered commercially valuable.
The most commercially produced seedless fruits as you know from your local supermarket have been developed from plants, where the fruits normally contain numerous relatively large hard seeds distributed throughout the flesh of the fruit.
Seedless fruits are made and produced through a process knows as parthenocarpy. In other words, this means “virgin fruit”, because it’s the process of producing fruits without fertilization, where fruit with seeds goes through common fertilization.
However, parthenocarpy can occur naturally as a mutation or will occur as a result of artificial insemination of the fruit.
The methods used to produce seedless fruits through parthenocarpy include artificial pollination with either dead pollen or with some changes in the pollen or even by injecting fruit with synthetic chemicals such as hormones and auxins, which are the well known synthetic chemicals for parthenocarpy.
Are seedless fruits really fruits?
You can be sure of reaching different answers depending on who you ask. If you ask a botanist, he will tell you that the scientific difference of fruit is as we all know from a flowering plant that contains seeds as well as has been watered and grown in soil. It can be hard to understand if the fruit doesn’t contain seeds whether it can then be a fruit or not.
If you look at the technically a seedless fruit should probably not be considered as a fruit. However, since a seedless fruit still has the same vitamins, minerals and in all other ways is like fruit with seeds, everyone uses the term fruit for convenience.
How can grapes be “organic” if they are seedless?
A seedless grape can be designated as organic even though it has been produced through genetically modified organisms (GMO).
The biggest concerns people often got with GMO foods are that the modified organism used for GMO foods aren’t “natural” and questioning safety for consumption. What is interesting here is that humans have been consuming not “natural” organisms for more than a decade.
However, all seedless grapes will always be “unnatural”, since it’s not possible to produce seedless grapes in a natural way.
The process of growing a seedless grape is that the process uses a form of asexual reproduction of a grapefruit. The new plant is essentially a genetic clone of the original parent natural plant, which from here requires manual manipulation of the genetic material in the plant to make it seedless.
If we as consumers only demanded naturally occurring seedless grapes and other fruits, we would not enjoy going down to the local store and buying them. The rare mutant seedless grape and other seedless fruits would certainly not be nearly enough to supply the country’s grocery stores today.
Manipulating plant genetic material can be a good thing, but it can also quickly become easy to make mistakes when you can’t see if you got a natural fruit with seeds or a seedless grape when you shop at your local supermarket.
The great thing is that we have biotechnology available today, which speeds up the process a lot and is a gamechanger in many ways. The hybrids which are produced through advanced genetic material can be developed quicker and don’t have to go through different tests and numerous growing seasons.
The reason why we have an abundant and affordable food supply consisting of seed-free grapes and other fruits today is due to the biotechnology that enables efficient and timely development of GMO seeds used in production agriculture today.
Can a mutant seedless grape plant reproduce naturally?
The answer here is definitely no!
While this seems to be a great idea, it would not be possible to reproduce a seedless grape plant, because the natural process for a grape plant reproduction will always be through seeds.
The only possible way to reproduce a mutant seedless grape plant is through the unnatural and manual asexual reproduction process, which for sure is not naturally like through seeds.
To be honest, how many of us have been eating seedless grapes and other fruits for years without a second thought to how they have been produced?
Some will be produced unnatural and some will be natural through seeds and grow to its plant with fruits.
Can you plant seedless fruit or vegetables?
No that’s not possible!
Like we have highlighted before in this article – it is not possible to plant seedless fruits or vegetables. The reason is that the plants that produce them don’t occur in nature and are produced unnaturally. When seedless fruit or vegetables are produced unnaturally they cannot be reproduced, but they need to be made.
Through the past years, scientists have developed many different seedless varieties of fruits and vegetables such as seedless grape, watermelon, and tomatoes. The reason for scientists to developed seedless fruits and vegetables was to make them more convenient to eat. Since the seedless fruits and vegetables can’t be planted, as you might know, if you have read the whole article, they have to be cultivated through different scientific processes.
However, the way to make a seedless grape as an example is from existing plants. The adult grape plant stems have to be sliced diagonally and afterward cut into sections. After the stems have been sliced the cut ends have to be dipped into a rooting hormone and then it’s ready to be planted.
The new plants that will start to grow are basically genetic clones of the original adult plant where the only difference is that they produce seedless fruit. It’s the same way to produce seedless varieties whether it be fruits or vegetables.
Are seedless grapes healthy?
All fruits are healthy and seedless fruits like grapes are no exception. Seedless grapes are highly nutritious containing a lot of different antioxidants and vitamins.
However, if you compare white grape with red grape, a red grapefruit has more nutrients than white grapes, offering higher amounts of Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and phytonutrients.
If you have been shopping in your local supermarket recently, you might have seen that they only have seedless grapes. The reason for that is that the seedless grapes are easier and more enjoyable to eat for many people and because a lot of consumers prefer them over seedes grapes it makes sense for the supermarket to prefer seedless grapes.
You can expect these vitamines from just one cup daily of a red grape:
28% DV of Vitamin K
27% daily value (DV) of Vitamin C
6% DV of Vitamin B12
8% DV of potassium
10% DV of copper
1.4 grams of fiber
1.1 grams of protein
When you put all these vitamins and nutrients together, you’ll see that just one cup daily of a red grape, will give you a great and healthy start to your day.
Is it healthy to eat seedless fruits every day?
All fruits make a healthy addition to your daily diet — with or without seeds.
It’s healthy to eat all types of fruits every day and it’s recommended. Eating whole fruit gives you fibers and a lot of vitamins and forces you to chew. By chewing your seedless fruits and other food you will help your teeth and gums become healthier.
Like with all other things, good things in excess become bad – meaning that you can, of course, eat seedless fruits every day, but you should not eat 15 fruits every day, since a lot of fruits contain fruit sugar, which becomes unhealthy in excessive quantities.
Besides fruit sugar, too much fruit every day can also contribute to too enamel damage, due to all the acidity the fruit contains.
Did you know how you can easily store vegetable seeds for next year? Read more here!